In December 2010, the IceCube collaboration placed its last string of detectors 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) into the Ataractic ice. This project consists of 86 strings, for a total of 5,160 detectors embedded in 0.4 square mile (1 square km) of ice. The IceCube project is searching for neutrinos — extremely low-mass particles that interact only through the weak nuclear force (one of the four fundamental forces, it works solely within atoms and can induce radioactivity).
IceCube is an enormous observatory at the South Pole that uses a square kilometer of pristine Antarctic ice as its lens. // Illustration courtesy NSF
The plan is for IceCube to detect neutrinos that enter in the Northern Hemisphere and have traveled through Earth. This might seem counterintuitive — the detector is located at the Southern Hemisphere but detecting objects that come through the Northern Hemisphere. IceCube uses Earth to filter out cosmic rays and other particles. This means the experimental data isn’t bogged down by background noise (caused by particles other than neutrinos).
Now that the project is up and running, the IceCube collaboration — headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin — is hosting a symposium about science in Antarctica. Because Madison is essentially in Astronomy magazine’s backyard, I’m heading to the meeting for a few days. Keep an eye out for blog updates as I learn more about astronomy at the South Pole.